CLEVELAND, Ohio – Lounging in Viola Super's porch swing and gazing at the ornate and slightly bowed brick wall of League Park, it's possible to squint and imagine fans pouring down East 66th Street in 1891, eager to watch Cleveland Spiders ace Cy Young throw the first pitch in the new stadium.

Those days, of course, are long gone. But baseball is not dead on this quiet, historic corner of Cleveland's Hough neighborhood, and Super said she could not be more pleased to see a bright future finally nearing realization at League Park after decades of neglect and decay.

As the Indians celebrate their 114th home opener Friday three miles away at Progressive Field, a $6.3 million restoration and renovation of League Park is about 75 percent finished and continues, now that winter has thawed, toward a mid-July completion target.

“I'm very excited about it. I really can't wait,'' said Super, a retired RTA driver who five years ago with her husband, Lucius Oldham, built the first of four large new homes which stand together as an oasis on the block next to an abandoned cement block building with a tree growing through the roof.

“It can only be a positive for the neighborhood. I'm hoping it will be very encouraging for the inner-city youth to participate in baseball.''

The two-fold focus of the project is a historical restoration of what little remains from the original 1891 stadium – the East 66th first baseline grandstand wall and the three-floor ticket house on the corner of Lexington Ave. – coupled with an artificial turf baseball field and a new building that will house concessions, bathrooms and possibly a shop or conference room near home plate.

View full sizeArtist's rendering of architect Paul Volpe's design for the restoration of League Park, which city official say is about 75 percent complete.City Architecture Inc.

Beyond the outfield fence, a clay and grass softball/baseball field and paved walking path were finished last year, and it was named Fannie Lewis Community Park at League Park, in honor of the late councilwoman who proposed and campaigned for the entire project more than a decade ago.

The city-owned League Park is to be an enclosed facility used for recreation and possibly high school softball and baseball games, and is to be available for adults who want to play on the same lot with the same quirky dimensions where Joe DiMaggio rapped the final hits of his record 56-game hitting streak, and where the Cleveland Buckeyes won the 1945 Negro League World Series.

“I love that it's a replica of what was there,'' said Michael Cox, Cleveland's Director of Public Works. “I played on that field as a kid growing up. It was great to play there, and it will be exciting to see the kids on the field again. We can teach them the historical value of League Park when they play there.''

Artificial turf, which is to be installed in May, will cover the entire field, including home plate and a raised pitcher's mound. Home plate will be in the same spot where it was for the Indians, a massive 460 feet from center field, 375 feet from the left-field corner, and just 290 feet down the right-field line to the screen (45 feet high and 150 feet in length) now in place that mimics the former Great Wall. Permanent bleachers seating 500 will be behind home plate.

League Park, which was known as Dunn Field for some of its early days, was rectangular with home plate tucked and rotated slightly into the northwest corner. The two-level grandstands extended down the right-field line, then cut into foul territory toward the Great Wall, where there was no seating. The third-base grandstand met with the left-field bleachers jutting toward Lexington Ave. Originally built to seat 9,000, the double-deck grandstands added 10 years later brought League Park's peak capacity to 21,414. The Indians last played there in 1946 and much of the stadium, which never had lights, was torn down in 1951.

The surviving ticket house occupies the southwest corner and was the former main entrance. VIP Restoration of Cleveland has done extensive work restoring its brick exterior while replacing and refurbishing windows, arches, rafter tails and intricate column capital tops, all with significant attention to historical detail with the help of old photos.

The building had been in poor shape, with all the windows broken and the interior stripped bare. Construction workers said this week that when they arrived last summer, they had to evict several squatters who had trashed the place.

“We're recreating history here," Dave Murdock, a carpenter foreman, said as he proudly pointed to the column restoration being installed inside the ticket house.

The first floor likely will house a museum for what the city hopes will be a regular stream of baseball history buffs. Cox said his dream is to have staff dressed in period clothes or uniforms.

“We are looking for this to be a destination, not just a ball field," Cox said. “We're hoping to give tours. That's a cornerstone of the Hough area. It's a rebirth of the whole area."

The ticket building's second story, with its original oak floor still intact, will be for storage. The third floor has the heating and air conditioning units. The third-level attic space is believed to have been one of the locker rooms, and indeed the cement floor is pitted from decades players walking around in cleats. Likely lost to the public will be the chance to walk the same narrow, winding stairwell players climbed to the cramped team quarters.

Other than an occasional rusted beer can or rotted baseball, workers said they found no remnants from the park's glory days. Souvenir hunters, many armed with medal detectors, had combed the park for years.

But one unique characteristic was uncovered and preserved: a tunnel that led from the Indians' first-base dugout under the grandstand and emerging near the East 66th west wall, where a ramp then led to the ticket house. The tunnel was rediscovered during renovation. Most of it has been filled in, but a dozen stairs near the wall were preserved and now rise into the middle of the new building for visitors to see. Construction workers on site are calling them the “stairs to nowhere.''

Across the street, Super pointed out the tips of daffodils poking through her mulch, a determined sign of spring. With the sound of a power grinder filtering over from League Park on Wednesday afternoon, she gestured toward the 123-year-old remnant encountering its own, long-awaited rebirth. A lifelong baseball fan, she plans to visit League Park often when games begin there late this summer. She's also a former caterer, and joked she might even sell snacks in her driveway.

“I chose this lot because it was across from League Park in hopes they would finally do something with it,'' she said. “It looks like I'm finally getting my wish.''

To view historic images of Cleveland's League Park, click the blue text below:

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